Full Circle
by Neko-chan -Silvered Tongue
Summary: Puzzleshipping. For one Pharaoh, time stood still. However, that Pharaoh's time has moved on, leaving those that he left behind to pick up the pieces of his passing. For one person, Yuugi, this is a difficult--impossible--thing to do.
1. PROLOGUE

**Full Circle  
**By: Neko-chan

_**Disclaimer:**_ I'm feeling lazy and so this disclaimer will be applied to the entire story, however long it lasts. Thus: The following piece is a work of fiction. I gain no monetary compensation from writing it. Yuugiou belongs to someone who is male and obviously not me (aka, the manga-ka Kazuki Takahashi) and also belongs to rather large, scary companies that I have no affiliation with. Needless to say, please don't sue.

_**Introduction:**_ [Puzzleshipping -- Yami no Yuugi/Yuugi] For one Pharaoh, time stood still. However, that Pharaoh's time has moved on, leaving those that he left behind to pick up the pieces of his passing. For one person, Yuugi, this is a difficult--impossible--thing to do. (Please note: This story takes place 10 years after Yuugiou DM concludes.)

_**Author's Note:**_ ....well. I've been gone from Yuugiou for several years, but I've become rather nostalgic and have decided to return. This is a tentative story and, if enough interest is shown, I will continue and finish it--this idea has been tossed around in my head for... quite a while, actually, and I hope that it's received well by others. I want to do it justice. With that said: enjoy.

* * *

**Prologue  
**

_[…]_ _Round the decay  
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,  
The lone and level sands stretch far away._

("Ozymandias" – Percy Bysshe Shelley)

The sun beat down from a cloudless sky, the blue washed out and bleached to white in Yuugi Mutou's sun-dazzled gaze. The now twenty-eight year-old grinned fiercely, bringing up a hand to shade his eyes as he looked out over the sands that lay spread out before him: mile upon mile upon mile of desert, the Sahara stretching out into seeming forever. _Here_, came the almost savage thought, and Yuugi's attention shifted to the digging crew that was working hard at uncovering a tomb that explorers had stumbled upon the month before. _Here._

It had been a long and exhausting fight, but the former King of Games had been able to argue for this chance that other archaeologists worked years for. It had helped that his grandfather had been at the forefront of archaeology for a very long time, and perhaps it could also be said that the board of directors was curious to see what the prodigal grandson would do. Would he find even greater discoveries than his grandfather before him? Would he, too, revolutionize the field?

--thus, the board had said yes, but—as with anything—that agreement came with limitations.

Yuugi Mutou had a month in Egypt.

However, if he didn't find anything within that month…

He _had_ to.

_Here—_

It was a secretive little whisper that hi_ssss_ed its way through the back of his mind; hidden in shadows for years, that whisper was finally awakening, stirring to life beneath the uncompromising rays of the Egyptian sun. It twined, slithered, slunk its way through the dark crevices of the ruined labyrinth that mou hitori no boku had left behind.

_Here_.

Yuugi knew, with complete certainty, that it was here that he would finally find what he had been searching for for so long—an end to the sense of loss that had plagued him for a decade. Learning to stand on his own, to separate himself completely from the thought of 'me' and 'other,' to finally have others see _himself_ as he truly was and not the Pharaoh… it should have ended ten years ago and, for his friends and rivals, perhaps it had. However, the feeling of something missing had never completely left Yuugi.

So he was here, in mou hitori no boku's homeland, searching for the last piece of the puzzle that would seal everything away and give Yuugi the satisfaction of an ending that came within his own terms.

Yuugi's fingers curled tight into a fist, watching as the diggers suddenly became frantic, their motions quick and abrupt as they spoke to one another in their native tongue. Elation filled his chest, and the young archaeologist's smile grew fiercer, shining brighter than the sun so high above.

"Professor Mutou! Professor Mutou! We've finally dug down to the tomb's entrance!"

_Here_.


	2. Chapter One

**Full Circle  
**By: Neko-chan

_**Disclaimer:**_ I'm feeling lazy and so this disclaimer will be applied to the entire story. Thus: The following piece is a work of fiction. I gain no monetary compensation from writing it. Yuugiou belongs to someone who is male and obviously not me (aka, the manga-ka Kazuki Takahashi) and also belongs to rather large, scary companies that I have no affiliation with. Needless to say, please don't sue.

_**Introduction:**_ [Puzzleshipping -- Yami no Yuugi/Yuugi] For one Pharaoh, time stood still. However, that Pharaoh's time has moved on, leaving those that he left behind to pick up the pieces of his passing. For one person, Yuugi, this is a difficult--impossible--thing to do. (Please note: This story takes place 10 years after Yuugiou DM concludes.)

_**Author's Note:**_ Surprise of all surprises--people both want me to continue and remember me from.... well, years ago! XD; The latter really makes me pleased; I seriously thought that I would have been forgotten by now. So... thank you! And, as I promised, I'll be continuing this story. Please enjoy. ^^

* * *

**Chapter One**

_They who forbid when there is nothing to be forbidden, and forbid not when there is something to be forbidden, such men, embracing false doctrines, enter the evil path. They who know what is forbidden as forbidden, and what is not forbidden as not forbidden, such men, embracing the true doctrine, enter the good path._

(Buddha)

-

"Professor Mutou! Professor Mutou! We've finally dug down to the tomb's entrance!"

_Here._

-

The light from the sun flickered and died, moving with the workers at the top of the stairwell. Every so often, the bodies blocked the light completely and Yuugi was grateful for the fact that he had grabbed the flashlight from his tent before running towards the newly-opened entrance. With dirt and pebbles scraping beneath his heavy boots, the young doctorate continued making his way deeper into the looming darkness.

In a way, the young man was reminded of the Yami no Batsu, the Shadow Games that had been so common in his life a decade before. Yuugi bit his lip at the reminder before frowning slightly: deeper and deeper down he went, ignoring the chill of the air and the stale taste that lingered on the tip of his tongue. All of this was familiar, all of these were actions that had been repeated countless of times, both with Jii-chan and on his own as a archaeologist.

Deeper and deeper down Yuugi went until the light faded completely from the tomb's entrance, deeper and deeper until the professor couldn't hear the muffled shouts of his digging crew, the happy exclamations of his fellow professors. Deeper and deeper still Yuugi went.

When he finally came to the bottom of the stairwell, Yuugi paused.

The beam from the flashlight shuddered, wavering gently in the man's hand: starting at the bottom where the last step met the floor, he slowly moved it up, up, up--the amber from the artificial light turned the darkness deeper and Yuugi could have sworn that it seethed in rolling waves in the corner of his gaze. Perhaps it did.

Yuugi's attention was all for the thick slab of stone that blocked him from going further.

Staring at it and its markings--covered in Duel Monsters, warnings spelled out omniously in hieroglyphics, the letters thick and black against the neutral tones of the stone; the young explorer finally took that finally step down, feet moving across the sand-littered floor. For a moment, the air stilled around the man, time stopping as it held its breath; waiting to see if this newcomer was worthy, already knowing that he was.

Perhaps... Mayhap...

_He who enters thus be forewarned: Dearth and Darkness await the traveler who takes a chance. The lumbering king lies hidden beyond this door. Wake Him at thine own peril._

The whisper slid from the shadows and Yuugi shivered slightly, wrapping his free arm around his middle. The flashlight's beam, however, did not waver and neither did his footsteps as the archaeologist continued to make his way closer still. He could see warnings carved into the stone, repetition of the warning that he had heard--faintly, yes, but still _heard_.

Standing before the tomb's outer entrance, Yuugi closed his eyes as he fought the feeling of years slipping away, fought the feeling of being young and naive, fought the feeling of not knowing what he was getting himself into--and still moving forward. He was _not_ the boy that he used to be, and he had come here to settle things to his own satisfaction. "I am not who I used to be; I've changed," Yuugi whispered softly before finally raising his lashes.

The young man stepped forward once more, bringing up his arm from around his middle to trace fingertips over the profile of a Pharaoh that was no longer Nameless. The jagged strands of hair, gold streaking through like lightning during a storm. Yuugi saw the reflection of years past every time he looked at himself in the mirror. _I am not who I used to be. I've changed._

Gently, the one-time-boy pushed down at the Sennen Puzzle around the Pharaoh's neck, whispering one word that was soon enough swallowed up in the silence of the tomb: "Atemu."

Silently, slowly, the slab eased inward with a loud groaning; centuries of disuse and dust trickled from hidden hinges and the waiting darkness beckoned Yuugi further.

A foot lifted, paused, and then finally fell--and the one-time King of Games took the invitation offered.

-

_...Awaaaken..._

_Ssssssire_

_He approaches_

...you know him...

You recogni_zzzz_e

_--him--_

_It is time to awaken, sssssire_

Yami no Batsu

We call--

_We long for you, ssssire..._

_Come._

_Come._

_**Awaken!**_

-

Hidden deep within the quiet maze of rooms and corridors, a labyrinth that no man--alive or dead--had been able to solve, far from Yuugi's light and echoing footfalls, a body flinched at the hissed order of the last whisper: with no chance in ignoring it or of returning to dream away the millennia as the shadows slipped closer, caressing over limbs long stilled...

The gleam of blood-flavored violet slowly appeared in the surrounding Darkness.


End file.
